Bloat? Swim Bladder? HELP!!!!!

el wadd

el wadd

Master of the Stupid Question.
Sep 26, 2006
307
0
0
50
uranus
cleaned the tank yesterday. woke up this morning and one of my larger discus was upside down in the top corner of my tank...not on his side upside down, completely upside down. it took me a few seconds to even notice the difference. Whats going on? I switched food a while back to hikari micro pellets, fed them right before I went to sleep yesterday....could it be that he has bloat? swim bladder?

I opened the tank top and touched the fish, he freaked a bit, but was right-side up for a bit, but the whole time it's like he's struggling to stay upright....

his stomache is quite large compared to the rest of the fish.....

there also seems to be a smaller discus that is kinda swimming a bit hard, like he's fighting floating upside down as well.

what can I do?

am:0
trites:0
trates:20
ph:7.2
temp:85.3
 
anybody?
 
i would think its a water quality issue which would mean you need to do more water changes. As i have never kept discus and know that they are sensitive fish, I am leery to give you any medicating advice, hopefully someone more experienced will chime in for you. nitrates of 20 is on the high side of what I prefer my tanks to be with just generic community tropical fish. What is your tank maintenance schedule?
 
well, up till I went on vacation, it was 50g 3x a week.....

I came back and did test on the water, 0am 0trites 40trates ph normal temp normal.

Usually my trates are @ 10. I'm gonna do another w/c and fast the fish for a few days to see how they feel....I got a bad feeling that I may lose one.

Done some reading on it, but nothing that really covers discus specifically...and definetly nothing I'm going to do without talking to someone who's had this problem before....
 
It sounds to me like constipation and/or an internal infection. I hate diagnosing and recommending meds without a lot more info but will take a shot and you can decide what to do.

If the tank is only for discus, then I would treat in there. if it is more of a community tank then I would do iy in an H tank.

I would dose two things. The first is epsom salt. I would dose 3 tablespoons/10 gals of water. This is a high dose but i have used it on discus before. Mine was pancaked on the bottom rather than upsdied down.

The second is erythromycin- you can get generic or else use Maracyn (EM is the main ingredient). Follow the dosing directions on the bottle. I would also raise the temp closer to 90 while they are in treatment.

The reason for using both is that there is no way to know if its simple constipation or something involving an internal infection and time can be improtant. Note that antibiotics can kill off bio, so monitor your water quality as the last thing you need is a cycling issue on top of the current problem. Using an H tank removes the cycling considerations as it need not be cycled. If you do this be sure to change at least 25% of the water every other day. Do the wc before that day's dosing and also replace the Epsom removed via the water change (ie if its a 10 gal tank and you change 1/3 of the water, dose 1 tablespoon of Epsom. Note a tablespoon = 3 teaspoons, so you are dosing just under 1 teaspoon/gal in a 10 gal tank when adding 3 tablespoons.)

Good luck.
 
I agree with TwoTank on the Epsom Salts. Epsom salts is a laxative. You should actually see a huge discus poop in less than 24 hours and see that bloated stomach go down. I used to have a discus that repeatedly would overeat on the pleco's algae wafers, even in the dark. First time she did it ....scared the you know what out of me. I don't feed much pellet anymore.
 
Thank you.

Boss Man's gone.....

I'm in shock. Never lost a discus like that. Quick. Poor lil dude, he was my favorite fish.

what do you think about this?
Yesterday while vacuuming his tank gravel, I went a bit nuts and did a full DEEP gravel vac. I don't usually go all the way down to the glass very often, and moved a significant amount of gravel around doing the aquascaping etc... Maybe I released some gasses that were trapped in the gravel and it messed him up?

I'm thinking another 25% w/c to bring down the trates as much as I can , and hold off on the feedings for a couple days...
 
yeah, I'm re-thinking the whole pellet as a staple food thing.....

I'm buying some epsom anyway's, just to have it around.
 
Geez I'm sorry you lost him. It's hard. I recently had to euthanize a sub-adult female discus with swim bladder problem that came on out of the blue. She so wanted to get up and swim right and I tried everything, even though I know it's 99.9% incurable. She just kept looking at me and kept trying to swim, but she got weaker and I didn't want her to suffer any more. So....I know it's hard to lose them! I really don't think you deep vac-ing like that had anything to do with it. Especially since you could see the bloat bulge. He may have been like that almost all night long and thru the morning and that's a long time for that kind of bloat. First time my discus had it I thought the way she couldn't keep her balance and was upside down she was surely going to die. But she survived to overeat dry wafers again and again!
 
so how did you deal with it to get them thru it?

Mine went from floating and trying to swim, to spasmodically trying to right itself, to dead....no gill movement, no nothing. quick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom